Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Stuff of the Year

It is time for a best of list for 2006.
The most important thing, the "Pop Song of the Year". In fact, its so important, its really why I started this blog.
Past winners include "Lose My Breath" by Destiny's Child, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, and "Tubthumping" by Chumbawaumba.
There is some controversy swirling around this category this year however. the Mrs. and I have been disputing over what does "pop song" mean.
Let me clarify.
For Korb's purposes, a pop song follows a verse chorus verse format (this can include a bridge or solo or go verse, verse chorus, but you get the drift), has been released as a single during the calendar year and has been on the charts, making it "popular". Hence, The Killers, Ciara, Snoop Dogg, and Carrie Underwood all released "pop" songs this year, albeit concentrated in different genres.
So, the nominees...
"Talk" by Coldplay
"SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake
"Dare" by Gorillaz
"My Love" by Justin Timberlake feat. T.I.
"Fastlane" by Lindsay Lohan

Talk amongst yourselves while I get some other categories out of the way.

Top 5 Albums of 2006
5. tie The Back Room-The Editors/ Morningwood-Morningwood
4. Lords Have Mercy-The Lords of Altamont
3. tie Sam's Town-The Killers/ Young for Eternity-The Subways
2. Impressions of Earth-The Strokes
1. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not-Arctic Monkeys

Back to the pop song.."Fastlane" is the catchiest song of the year, however, I can't verify it was released as a single. It was supposed to but the Ms. Lohan's label got mad at her and may or may not have ended up putting it out. If it did get released, its the winner, if not sorry..."My Love", has that amazing synth beat behind it and is a song I could hear a million times but I don't know if a song with a feat. rap in it has become commonplace enough to qualify. (it's one of the reasons "Signs" by Snoop Dogg was eliminated last year.

Best TV Shows of the Year
5. So Notorious-VH1
4. Call to Greatness-MTV
3. Stella-Comedy Central
2. How I Met Your Mother-CBS
1. The Shield-FX
Special mention to The Wire on HBO. Although I don't have the network, I have been buying the DVDs which I ripped though once I started watching. I'm sure season 4 carried on the tradition of great television.

"SexyBack", the superjam of the year should be eliminated because of its liberal use of the "f" word. I know it got taken out for the radio but its still there. Shame, shame JT.

Best Movie of the Year
1. The Departed
I just didn't see very many movies this year, let alone that I liked and this thing was so great I just wanted to mention it.

"Dare" by Gorillaz has the most weirdly catchy harmony of the year and though I don't really care for this group, this song always got me dancing whenever I heard it. Finally, "Talk" by Coldplay has the most engaging guitar riff of any song I heard this year as well as being a finely crafted pop song, but at 5 minutes it may be too long. Both of these songs take great liberties with the verse chorus formula as well making them iffy.

Best Reason to be Thankful for DVD
As mentioned earlier, The Wire is one of the best shows ever and if it weren't for TV on DVD I never would have had the chance to see it. So what I'm saying is that TV out on DVD is the best reason to be thankful for DVD. it also allowed me to see Entourage and Oz this year, as well as having been able to catch up on The Shield so I could actually watch it on TV this year. Thank you DVD distributors.

So what to do. It's not as cut and dry this year in the Pop Song of the Year race as in past years like when I declared "All the Things She Said' by T.a.t.U. as Pop Song of the Year in July it was so good back in '04.
I just can't get confirmation on "Fastlane" so sorry Lindsay. The rap and the chirpy thing on "My Love" elimiantes it. Eventually the feat. rule will relax but not this year. "Dare" is just too weird and "Talk" is simply too long.
So it looks like I'm going to have to break the rules a little and declare that since it was edited for the radio, "SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake is the Pop Song of the Year for 2006.
Congratulations Mr. Timberlake and America.

Have a great summer, see you next year.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

James Kim

Maybe you heard about James Kim, the man who got stuck with his family on a road in Oregon for 2 weeks. His wife and two kids were saved but he went out to try and find help and was later found dead from hypothermia.
I used to work with James at TechTV and even though we were not close, the story really got to me.
There's been a lot of debate in the online forums about whether what he did was right or wrong and I will now chime in and say that I believe what he did was right. he had been stuck for seven days when he set out. Imagine having two young children and no knowledge if people were looking for you or would be able to find you. I think as a father, he had to go and unfortunately, that decision cost him his life.
A lot of emails went around a little thing we have called the TechTV alumni list and a lot of his former co-workers expressed a lot of nice sentiments about James and my two cents was that I respect and admire James for trying to save his family.
I hope no one ever has to make such a decision again and I hope that if nothing else, his family can take solace in the fact that James did the right thing and should be remembered for that.